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Sunday, May 18, 2008

May Two-Four

It's a long weekend up here in Canada and it's raining. I'd feel worse for the people camping or opening their cottages if I weren't sitting in a coffee shop determined to finish the first draft of my latest WIP today, (and instead blogging).

The muscles in my lower back seized up on the drive home from Boston nearly two weeks ago and they won't let go. The pain has erased my ability to put coherent sentences together. Certainly the ability to figure out the last three or four scenes of my book.

Got close to nothing done the last two days. Sigh.

But I have gone to some movies this week. They don't need much brain power and I can stretch my back while I sit.

I will try to blog more about these films, but enjoyed them all for different reasons...

Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr. Too funny. Too cute for his own good. Ten thousand names in the credits. Someone told me to stay for the credits and here's my tip. Unless you're seriously into comics. Don't bother. The little post credits easter egg was not worth sitting through ten thousand names going by. (I'm not exaggerating. Might have been closer to a hundred thousand people who worked on this movie. But the result was highly entertaining.)

My Blueberry Nights. Nora Jones' acting debut, surrounded by many stellar established actors: Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, David Strathairn. This film's not for everyone. In spite of the overall story being a romance it's really an "art film", certainly doesn't have the pacing or clear storytelling arc of a commercial film. But I really enjoyed it. She was kind of the weak link. A bit blank. But the others made up for it. And it's a story I keep thinking about... Someone go see it so we can tawk.

Son of Rambow I'd recommend this one to just about anyone. Really well done. It was "one that got away" for me at the TIFF last fall. Didn't see it then, but glad it got released so I could see it now. Very sweet kid as the protagonist. Very sweet story. Very funny. That cute guy who plays Chuck on Gossip Girls in a minor role. Set in the 1980's. What more could you want? Oh, and this one had a tiny easter egg after the much shorter credits. The one kid telling the other: "You spelled it wrong." "Really?" "There's not supposed to be a "w" at the end." "Oh, sorry." (or something to that effect.)

Ooops. I was going to just list the films and then blog about the long weekend and why Canada still celebrates Queen Victoria's birthday even though she's been dead for, what, 107 years? But you got movies instead. :-) (See what I mean about my brain not being able to hold onto thoughts????)

Bummer about the back... I've been there. Nothing a little diazapam couldn't get me through ;)

I LOVED Iron Man. My initial thought, when I saw RDJr was cast as lead was "WTF? Was Nic Cage unavailable?" *snort*But wow -- I couldn't think of better casting. Charming, off-the-cuff, inner genious, arrogant... it all worked for me. Great soundtrack too.

I saw Prince Caspian today. Meh. Thin plot, too much fighting for a supposed "kid movie" (yeah, I know it was PG, but try telling that to the people who were dragging 4 year olds into the theatre!!)

The previews for Rambow were excellent. I look forward to seeing it when it comes this far north.